Covid induced a mental health pandemic as well

Neha Saini

Tribune news service

Amritsar, October 27

As the world grapples with the crippling effects of the pandemic and the lockdowns, mental health had never before been the talk on the lips of people before. Many have not only been impacted economically and financially with loss of jobs and livelihoods, but emotionally as well. With growing levels of stress and depression and the loss of loved ones, this is a subject still being kept under wraps and in an attempt to start a conversation around the topic, Majha House’s online platform invited eminent authors, including Jerry Pinto, Jhilmil Breckenridge, Gayatri Gill and Amandeep Sandhu to share their end of tale and experiences.

Award winning author Jerry Pinto, whose book, ‘Emm and the Big Hoom’ won the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize as well as the Sahitya Akademi Award articulated how it is to love a person suffering from mental health problems and why the more you talk, the better. “The silence around this taboo subject needs to be broken by conversation and communication. We live in a society that is in denial about a lot of social ailments,” he said. Agreeing with Pinto, poet and writer Jhilmil Breckenridge, who joined the conversation from London, talked about the obsession we have with beauty and positivity that result in denial of mental health issues. “India is surrounded by this culture of toxic positivity fuelled by capitalism where everyone has to feel alright and deny the existence of illness, especially mental illness.”

Author Amandeep Sandhu, said that the pandemic has been brutal to people who are diagnosed with mental illness. “The distancing, no contact, the difficulty in access to medicine and doctors has meant that it has been a catastrophic time. There have been reports that people suffering from mental disorders like dementia, bipolar etc have deteriorated amid the pandemic.”

Veteran journalist Nirupama Dutt talked about how job cuts led to mental stress disorders. She confessed that she had faced an acute breakdown in communication after her younger and older colleagues lost their jobs and this was like a sword hanging over her head. “The isolation, the fear and stress was so great. At a time like that it was family support, friends and my work that came to my rescue,” she reminisced.

Gayatri Gill, screenplay writer with her first book ‘The Day Before Today’, spoke about how she was depressed in the early days of the lockdown in Mumbai that these stories came tumbling out of her head. “What we have seen in these times has affected us all and will never forget what we have learnt now,” she said. For children and older people these last eight months have been particularly gruelling. Children, especially young kids, have no idea that life exists outside the computer screen where they have classes and also interact with friends — it has been so weird!” Gill added.